Compur. Educ Vol. 10, No I. pp. 29-33. 1986 Prmted tn Great Bntam

0360-1315/86 $300+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd

COMPUTER ASSISTED COMMUNICATION IN THE EDUCATION OF THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

E. A. FETTON’ and P. BLENKHORN’ ‘John Aird School for the Visually Impaired, Shepherds Bush, London W12 9LB. England

2University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, England

Abstract-Discussion of the relationship between learning theory and CAL software is as relevant to the visually impaired as it is to other groups. There is, however, a more urgent issue, namely that of communication and the problems faced by the visually impaired in gaining access to the curriculum. It is esttmated that 80% of school learning is dependent on visual material and consequently an impairment of vision constitutes a communication handicap and thus a barrier to education. The trends toward the education of the blind and partially sighted together, and toward integration into mainstream schools, have increased the complexity of meeting communication needs. At the same time developments in microtechnology have increased the range of possible aids and created opportunities for the exploitation of auditory and tactile, as well as visual, media. The purpose of this paper is to consider the educational implications of communication, to review significant technological developments and to discuss the facihties necessary to meet the communication needs of the visually impaired in different educational environments.

INTRODUCTION

The main thrust of debate and research into CAL concerns the educational paradigm. Discussion of the relationship between learning theory and CAL software is as relevant to the visually impaired as it is to other groups. There is, however, a more urgent issue, namely that of communication and the problems faced by the visually impaired in gaining access to the curriculum. It is estimated that 80% of school learning is dependent on visual material and consequently an impairment of vision constitutes a communication handicap and thus a barrier to education. The trends toward the education of the blind and partially sighted together, and toward integration into mainstream schools, have increased the complexity of meeting communication needs. At the same time developments in microtechnology have increased the range of possible aids and created oppor- tunities for the exploitation of auditory and tactile, as well as visual, media. The pen and typewriter, as means of transmitting information, have been supplemented by such devices as the concept keyboard, microwriter and electronic braille keyboard. Paper, the traditional medium for information storage, has been supplemented by tape and disc storage. Reading from books, our principal means of receiving information, has been supplemented by VDU screens, LCD displays, synthetic speech and soft braille. The purpose of this paper is to consider the educational implications of communication, to review significant technological developments and to discuss the facilities necessary to meet the communication needs of the visually impaired in different educational environments.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION

The educational implications are those of defining the communication problem, assessing the potential to communicate, identifying communication needs and devising appropriate methods of teaching communication skills. In an educational context, communication is essentially concerned

with the media and means of transmitting, storing and receiving information. The individual’s ability to master a medium or to operate an aid will be influenced by the following factors:

(1) Sight and visual skills--A distinction must be drawn between sight as recorded by medical examination, and the ability to use residual vision. It is a mistake to assume that enlargement will

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30 E. A. FETTON and P. BLENKHORN

necessarily overcome a problem of ‘not seeing’. It is not uncommon for children with good residual vision to experience great difficulty in interpreting pictorial and diagramatic material. The history of visual impairment, and the degree of visual memory, are just as important as medical statistics when assessing an individual’s ability to learn through visual media.

(2) Hearing and auditory skills--Here again the distinction between medical statistics and practical application is important. Children assessed as having similar hearing will experience varying degrees of success in, for example, understanding synthetic speech or using tape as a means of receiving information.

(3) Touch and tactile skills-The ability to learn effectively through tactile media is dependent on more than good sensitivity. Pupils with similar braille reading skills may differ greatly in their ability to interpret tactile maps and diagrams.

(4) Motor control-The operation of many communication aids requires good motor control. It is, however, important to note that an individual’s ability to use a skill such as typing should not be judged in relation to that of others, but in relation to his/her ability to transmit and store information by some other means.

(5) Intelligence-Some skills, though appropriate from the point of view of vision, may be unsuitable for intellectually limited pupils.

(6) Motivation-The motivated pupil will obviously learn more efficiently. However, poor motivation alone should not be regarded as an adequate reason for abandoning an otherwise appropriate skill.

Having identified the areas to be assessed we are left with the problem of how the assessment can be carried out. In some instances objective tests are available but in others there is scope for the development of appropriate materials.

In turning to the identification of communication needs it must be recognized that these vary not only from one individual to another but also for the same individual in different situations. The primary consideration here is education but it is important to note that what is appropriate in an educational context may be inappropriate in a social or vocational setting. Continual transmission, storage and retrieval of information is central to the nature of education, and for an individual to be successful in this context he will require an efficient means of communication. The same individual may later be employed in a situation requiring minimal reading and writing. Thus it may be appropriate for a pupil to master braille for the purposes of educational efficiency, but discard it later in a vocational setting where reduced demands enable him to cope with print as his medium. There are many other factors too which influence needs:

(1) Educational stage--Communication demands obviously differ in primary, secondary, further and higher education. For this reason it is important to consider carefully at what stage a skill should be introduced.

(2) Curriculum-The main consideration for pupils following an academic curriculum must inevitably be efficiency, but speed of transmission and access will be far less important for pupils following a less academic programme. Hence it may well be appropriate for a pupil with good residual vision, following an academic timetable, to use braille as a medium, and a pupil with less residual vision, on a less academic programme, to use print as a medium.

(3) Educational environment-The needs of pupils or students integrated into mainstream will obviously differ from those in specialist establishments. In particular, the former group will require equipment that is portable and quiet in operation. Portability and noise are far less crucial for the latter group. However, even within the special school context, classroom organization, teaching methods and curriculum content will influence needs.

(4) Present or future needs-There is often a dilemma between present and predicted future needs, particularly in the case of pupils with degenerative eye conditions. There is considerable scope for discussion of this issue but it would seem reasonable to suggest that mastery of a medium or operation of an aid entails acquision of a skill, and skills will only be acquired if practiced systematically. If a pupil has sufficient sight to work in print, and the pressure of school work demands that he use his most efficient means of communication, then there will be little or no incentive to learn a new skill which is, at that point, of no use.

Computer assisted communication and the visually impaired 31

The task of the teacher is to assess the potential to communicate, identify individual needs and devise appropriate teaching methods.

The skills involved in mastering media and operating aids vary greatly and so also must approaches to teaching. However, some general points can be made. All communication skills must be taught, not simply left to chance. We clearly recognize the need to teach braille or typing but it is equally important to devise a systematic teaching programme to teach handwriting or the most effective way to operate a closed circuit television. New skills should be introduced at the earliest stage at which they are appropriate. A clear format for assessment should be devised for each skill. In the case of braille or microwriting, for example, noting the amount of code mastered is not sufficient. It is equally important to establish how efficiently the individual can apply the most commonly used elements of the relevant code. This obviously entails devising tests, but these need not necessarily be presented as such to pupils. Since teachers in all areas of the curriculum will be affected by the individual’s level of communication skills, they should have access to some form of assessment.

MEDIA AND MACHINES

It was noted earlier that communication can take place through visual, auditory or tactile media. The very significant contribution which microelectronics is making, is that it facilitates media interchange. Traditionally the blind person wishing to record information for personal reference would have done so by means of a mechanical brailler such as the Perkins. In order to communicate with the sighted world he would have been taught typewriting. Each system incorporated its own style of input, storage and retrieval, and no interchange between the systems was possible. In the case of typing the blind person had no means of verifying input or of accessing stored information. Today, however, many devices offer storage and retrieval of information in visual, auditory and tactile media, from just one input. Since it would be impossible here to review all such devices, we will consider instead, the technological developments which have made them possible. Some are the result of deliberate attempts to meet the needs of the visually impaired while others are not.

We will consider developments in terms of input, storage and output. No attempt will be made to describe each in detail or to explain it in technical terms. The object here is simply to highlight significant developments and point to present and possible future applications. Given that speech input is not as yet a practical possibility, developments in input methods have centred on keyboards:

Qwerry keyboards-under software control the traditional computer qwerty keyboard can offer considerable flexibility. Software is now available which enables the use of the BBC B micro- computer to use seven of the keys for Perkins-style input. Braillists without typing skills are thus able to use the micro efficiently.

Electronic braille keyboards--The VersaBraille, Braillewriter and other devices incorporate the standard 7-key braille input system. In addition two modifications to the Perkins Brailler are currently available which enable it to be used as an alternative input to the BBC Micro. The former facilitates word processing and the latter direct input to the computer while simultaneously producing braille hardcopy. A further device, Braille ‘N’ Print, combines transcription software from grade II braille to ‘English’ with a printer thus enabling the user to produce hardcopy braille and hardcopy print simultaneously.

Alternative keyboards--The Microwriter is the most commonly used of these amongst the visually impaired but some applications are also being found for the concept keyboard. As a means of input microwriting does not offer the speeds which can be achieved with two-handed keyboards, but the code can be easily learned and the skill rapidly acquired.

Optical character recognition-Systems offering recognition of a limited number of fonts are unsuitable for application to the visually impaired. The Kurzweil Reading Machine, however, represents one of the most significant developments in recent years. Most printed material can be input and output as synthetic speech or transferred to other text-processing devices if appropriately interfaced. Regretably high cost precludes widespread application.

32 E. A. FETWN and P. ~LFStGiORPU‘

Much is written about the approach of the paperless office but a decline in hardcopy is especially significant for the braillist since one short novel can amount to numerous large volumes. Hence the following developments in storage media are of considerable importance:

Cheap and ~o~-vo~at~~e memoq *-The principal benefit here has been the development of portable word processing systems.

Gzrsette and ~~croc~~ette storage- Many systems such as the Ver~Braille, Microwriter and Viewscan Text System, offer this form of storage. It offers portability, inexpensive outlay and maintenance and is suitable for incomplete or partially processed documents. Reasonable speeds of access can be achieved when the cassette or microcassette forms an integral part of the system.

Discs-Reduction in cost has enabled disc storage to be adopted more widely. Much of the best available software is dependent on rapid access and regular communication between the processor and storage system. This is especially true in the case of braille transcription systems.

r~f~r~~t~~~ retrieua~ qstems --Gaining access to current affairs and reference material is a considerable problem for those unable to cope with small poor quality newsprint. Storing such information in a manner enabling it to be down-loaded to a microcomputer opens up exciting possibilities for both the totally blind and those with limited residual vision. Software enabling the user to down-load “pages” and output them on a large character screen, in synthetic speech, in hardcopy or in soft braille, is now at an advanced state of development.

Retrieval of information has always constituted the most serious communication difficulty for the visually impaired, Traditionally they have been dependent upon material available in braille, large print or on tape. Compute~sed storage of information has resulted in much greater flexibility of output media. As already stated, of particular importance is the fact that information input in one form can be output in a variety of different ways.

LED and LCD displays--The development of portable word processing devices has been made possible by these displays. Such systems can be of great benefit to the visually impaired but they are not always necessarily suitable. In the case of the Micrawriter, for example, many who were able to read the LED display on the older model are unable to read the LCD display on the current model. Some research is at present being undertaken at Brnnnel University on the ~ssibility of producing a large-character display operating on an RS232 interface which could tK finked to various devices.

Large-character screen display--Software is now available for the BBC microcomputer which enables text files to be read in various print sizes. This might usefully be extended to the development of a word processing package which could be adapted to the colour and print-size preferences of different visually impaired users.

Hardcopy braille-It is only recently that braille embossers have become available at a price which might enable some schools and resource centres to purchase them. Unfortunately the complexities of different “computer Braille” codes and transcription systems have seriously hindered easy translation from print to braille. Nevertheless these problems are essentially of a software nature only, and the wider availability of the hardware represents a significant step forward.

Soft braille-A number of computer terminals for the blind including Brailink, Braillex and Versabraille, incorporate softbraille pin displays. An alternative method of production, on a closed loop of tape, is being developed in Bristol. The latter is intended to be marketed as a peripheral for use with various devices. Such systems not only give the blind access to ~nfo~ation stored on computer but facilitates word processing through braille.

Tactile gra@rics---Production of tactile maps and diagrams for use by the blind has always constituted a major problem and production of such materials by the blind themselves, almost impossible. The introduction of 3-D photocopiers is one approach to overcoming this problem. Research is also taking place at Worcester College for the Blind, whereby a standard graph plotter is being modified to draw raised images. Thus, with the aid of a computer, the blind student will be able to draw.

Synthetic speech-This has probably been the most significant single development in the creation of communication systems for the visually impaired. Some systems incorporate synthesisers while others provide facilities for control of a synthesiser interfaced as a peripheral.

Computer assisted commumcatlon and the visually impaired 33

@taco+-The Optacon is a portable, battery operated reading aid for the blind. Print is scanned by means of a handheld camera and the image is reproduced on a tactile array by miniature vibrating rods. An alternative camera is available for reading VDUs. It is obviously a useful aid in that it gives the totally blind access to print, but reading speeds obtained are generally low.

The technological developments outlined above can be combined to offer quite revolutionary systems of communication for the visually impaired. It would however be a mistake to assume that perfect systems are readily available. Careful evaluation, in terms of the potential and needs of the individual, and of the facilities offered, is essential if new methods are to be adopted effectively. Cost, reliability, portability and backup services must be considered in conjunction with the possible educational advantages of any system for an individual.

MEETING COMMUNICATION NEEDS

Reference has already been made to the changing pattern of special education for the visually impaired. Most specialist establishments no longer see the distinction between those registered as blind, and those as partially sighted, as being useful in an educational context, and are therefore aiming to cater for the full range of visual disability. At the same time the Warnock Report, and the Education Act 1981, have encouraged a trend towards the integration of the visually impaired into mainstream schools and colleges. Hence the range of communication needs which must be met, in each setting, has greatly increased.

If these demands are to be satisfied then those responsible for provision must recognize the central importance of communication in giving the visually impaired access to the curriculum. Such recognition must be coupled with a thorough appraisal of individual needs and a clear under- standing of the revolutionary methods made possible by technological developments. Serious application of microtechnology, in specialist or mainstream establishments, demands investment in hardware, trained teaching staff, technician support, prompt and reliable servicing and easy access to expert software modification facilities. We are at present in a position where hardware lies idle or is under-used for want of better software. If such provision is made then existing technology offers both the teacher and pupil a flexible multi-media approach. On the one hand the teacher will be able simultaneously to prepare work in different media, and on the other hand, the visually impaired pupil or student will have the facility to produce work accessible in media appropriate to his needs and to those of his teachers.

CONCLUSIONS

The changing pattern of special education has created a demand for greater flexibility in the media and methods of processing learning materials. The visually impaired have been denied easy access to the curriculum as a result of predominantly visual presentation. Microelectronics now offers the potential for exploitation of auditory and tactile, as well as visual, media, and easy interchange between all three. If this potential is to be utilised to make the curriculum more accessible to the visually impaired then the central importance of communication must be appreciated, the communication needs and potential of each individual assessed, and the physical and human resources made available.